Exposition des ymages des figures qui sunt: discourses about images in Medieval Occident

Contrary to what indicates the famous – and questionable – formula "Bible des illetrés”, the medieval discourses on images went well beyond just highlighting its didactic function. In this article, we present a sample of this diversity, analyzing a number of medieval texts dealing with images, which we have divided into five broad categories (not mutually exclusive: on the contrary, sometimes complementary). The first and most numerous are the theoretical discourses on images involving theological questions. Then, still based on arguments of theological order, a second group corresponds to those texts that seek to intervene in the practice of images through normative propositions. As a result from the previous two types is the third group: the speeches dealing with the reception of images and the reactions they cause. A fourth group are the writings that mention the producers of images: both practical documents and those that express value judgments about their Works. And finally, there are texts that describe the images, both their iconographic content and their materiality.